For the amp power levels question - I don’t even know anymore lol. Sure with "all else being equal", more power is better. But unfortunately in this hobby, there is abosolutely never an "all else being equal" scenario! Some specific scnearios I’ve experienced, which makes it impossible to correlate (or not correlate) sound quality to power:
- I now have some restored Eico HF-22 tube amps, rated a paltry 22 Watts, that sound like heaven into any 91dB+ speakers. Even at my preferred (loud) SPL volumes, they'll spank most higher-powered amps, to my preferences.
- Several years ago I (briefly) had the Carver Sunfire Signature 600 II amp (600 Watts / 1200 @ 4 ohms) and at least to me - it sounded like the sonic equivalent of rubbing broken glass on my face.
- My favorite amps - at any price - are the high-end, high-powered VACs - Master and Statement lines. These amps also sound significantly better than VAC’s lower-powered, lower-tier amps - but there are many more differences than JUST the power, so it can’t be isolated to just that. But wow - it's quite frustrating going from the Signature amps to Master / Statement line amps, if you ever have to go back to the former.
It’s quite possible that some amps designs / topologies simply sound better when scaled up a lot in power. But then others...don’t. The Eico is an an example of an amp that sounds "good to the last Watt" (lots of focus on the "First Watt", but this can be important too). Others amp may require gobs of headroom to say out of a trouble zone. And some amps will just sound bad to you with your speakers, no matter what!
